Workplace Bullying survey results

The Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) defines Workplace Bullying as a “repeated harmful abusive conduct that is threatening, intimidating, humiliating, work sabotage or verbal abuse at the workplace”. At the beginning of 2018, the WBI released the 2017 results of a workplace bullying survey in the U.S. The key findings? Here they are!

19% of Americans are bullied, another 19% witness it

61% of Americans are aware of abusive conduct in the workplace

60.4 million Americans are affected by it

70% of perpetrators are men; 60% of targets are women

Female perpetrators target mostly other women.

Hispanics are the most frequently bullied race

61% of bullies are bosses, the majority (63%) operate alone

40% of bullied targets are believed to suffer adverse health effects

29% of targets remain silent about their experiences

71% of employer reactions are harmful to targets

60% of coworker reactions are harmful to targets

To stop it, 65% of targets lose their original jobs

77% of Americans support enacting a new law

Now that you know the data, we invite all of our readers to reflect on how their behaviors in the workplace could be affecting others and to consider how others behaviors are affecting us. If you’re being targeted, identify the proper channels at your work to handle workplace bullying (AKA Mobbing). Consider first addressing the issue by objectively expressing your feelings or observations to the perpetrator.

Note from our Editor:

Bein a victim of workplace bullying is not a defenseless position, there are many steps we can take to solve the issue. My personal recommendation when approaching the perpetrator to talk about what you feel/think is to follow this structure:

The message contains 3 parts:

When X occurred…. (this is where you refer to a specific event)

I think and/or feel…. (Here you explain how were you affected by part A)